Know Your Niche and Grow It

The fifth of our Seven Pillars of a Better Business is “Stick to the knitting – and stand out from the crowd”. Remarkably, nearly nine out of ten businesses who achieve consistent profitable growth achieve that growth by selling more of their existing products/services to their existing customers and other people just like them.

The “sticking to the knitting” strategy is all about getting the most possible out of your existing market segments and your existing products/services. “Sticking to the knitting” tactics include cross-selling, up-selling, increasing the usage rate, winning a bigger share of your customers’ spend on your products/services, asking for referrals, and winning more market share so that you dominate your niche. Of course, all of these tactics depend on identifying and truly understanding the specific set of customers to whom your product/service delivers distinctive benefits. In other words, a group of customers who will buy from you instead of someone else because they value something about your product/service that they can’t get from someone else. These customers will then be prepared to pay for your products/services thus enabling you to avoid competing on price and maintain good margins.